Jacob Misiorowski blanks Cardinals in finale

No surprise here. Brewers manager Pat Murphy confirmed that fellow youngster Logan Henderson will get the ball for Game 2. Misiorowski made the leap from hard-throwing rookie phenom to full-fledged front-of-the-rotation superstar this season with a microscopic 1.80 ERA, 0.80 WHIP and 252/44 K/BB ratio across 174 2/3 innings over 30 starts. He’ll spearhead Milwaukee’s pitching staff when they open up postseason play against either the Padres or Cubs later this week.

It figured that at least one of Misiorowski’s final two starts would be a short one, and he was pulled after allowing only one baserunner and throwing 44 pitches tonight. The outing lowered his ERA ever so slightly to 1.86. He’s expected to go longer Saturday against the Cardinals and then make a Game 1 start in the NLDS.

Nick Gonzales did Misiorowski a big favor in the fourth, when he had a bad read and decided against trying to score on a groundball single that deflected into the outfield. Ryan O’Hearn saw the ball and assumed Gonzales would keep going, so he was thrown out between second and third. It should have been a 1-1 game with runners on the corners and one out at that point. Instead, Misiorowski escaped the jam without any damage, and he got the win in spite of a rather quick hook after 82 pitches. He’s 15-5 with a 1.89 ERA. Next up for him is probably in start in Philly on Tuesday, unless the Brewers would prefer to have him make a shorter start on four days’ rest Sunday against the Orioles.

Misirowski threw fastballs on 63 of his 93 pitches and topped out at 104.5 mph before exiting with the scored tied 1-1 tonight. All nine of his strikeouts came on the heater. He’s up to 236 strikeouts for the season, which is the highest total for an NL starter since Spencer Strider came in at 281 in 2023. He should make his next start next Tuesday against the Pirates.

Misiorowski didn’t have it in this start from the jump. He walked Pete Crow-Armstrong to start this game with four straight balls after getting ahead 0-2 on him and then Alex Bregman made him pay just after with a two-run homer. The second inning wasn’t much better as Misiorowski tossed 31 pitches and the Cubs brought home three more runs. For the first time in a while, his command was all over the place as he missed spot after spot. His fastball didn’t even have a 40% zone rate and by his second time around the Cubs’ lineup, he was leading with his cutter. That pitch was erratic too and Misiorowski looked more like the pitcher we saw on his worst days during his rookie season than who he’s become this year. Nevertheless, he’ll have a chance to right the ship against these same Cubs next time out.

Misiorowski punched out six batters on the night while issuing a pair of walks. All of the damage done against him came in the fifth inning as Jared Young smacked an RBI double and scored on an RBI single off the bat of Christopher Morel. The 24-year-old right-hander generated 12 swings and misses on 89 pitches in the ballgame — half of those on his fastball — while posting a CSW of 26 percent. Now 14-5 on the season, he’ll carry a pristine 1.73 ERA, 0.75 WHIP and a 222/35 K/BB ratio (151 innings) into Wednesday’s divisional showdown against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

Misiorowski didn’t have his absolute best stuff today, averaging a mere 100.1 mph with his fastball, and recorded just six strikeouts for the second straight start. Still, he moved to 13-5 with a 1.68 ERA with his seventh scoreless start of the year. Unless the Brewers adjust their six-man rotation and move him up to Thursday against the Mets, he’ll face the Rangers at home next Friday.

Misiorowski struck out only six tonight, one more than his season low, but he did generate 17 whiffs. His 14 sliders on the night produced nine swings, which turned into eight whiffs and a 71-mph groundout. We assume he would have thrown more, but John Smoltz kept telling him not to. Misiorowski moved to 12-5 with a 1.75 ERA. He’ll face the Braves next weekend.

He struck out nine. Misiorowski averaged 103.4 mph with his 10 fastballs in the first inning, but he was down to about 100 mph later and gave up homers on fastballs of 99.4 mph to Brooks Lee in the fifth and 99.1 mph to Kody Clemens in the sixth. Misiorowski has now allowed nine homers in his last seven starts after giving up just four in his first 15. Fortunately, though, he’s still not really allowing anything besides the homers; he’s given up a total of 11 earned runs in the seven starts. He’ll face the Dodgers next weekend.

Misiorowski gave up a two-run homer to Wade Meckler, and that was it. He was dominant after that roundtripper, but the Brewers could not solve Walbert Ureña, so it’s a hard-luck loss for the 24-year-old flamethrower. Perhaps just as impressive as the 10 strikeouts are — with 17 swings and misses — Misiorowski only needed 83 pitches to get through those seven frames. He’ll be back at it next weekend against the Twins.